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2010 marked the mid-point of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development.
“Education for sustainable development is a life-wide and lifelong endeavour which challenges individuals, institutions and societies to view tomorrow as a day that belongs to all of us, or it will not belong to anyone.” (UNESCO)
Much has been achieved since the Scottish Government published their response to this - Learning for Our Future. This action plan has now been revised and updated – May 2010 - and can be downloaded as - Learning for Change: Scotland’s Action Plan for the Second Half of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, ISBN: 978-0-7559-8319-3 (web only).
Aim and Objectives
By 2014 people in Scotland will have developed the knowledge, understanding, skills and values to live more sustainable lives.
- bring initiatives together rather than adding to confusion and overload
- pool experience, skills, ideas and expertise
- develop shared approaches and a common language
- provide support to practitioners throughout the sector
- spot new opportunities
- highlight and celebrate the good work that is already going on
- learn from each other.
As a means of achieving these aims and objectives in the college sector the Scottish Funding Council continues to support a national initiative to look at approaches to embedding sustainable development into the Scottish College Curriculum.
This project is managed by Scotland's Colleges and we work with the following strategic partners:
News
So where is the project now?
We recently entered the third year of the project and the second half of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and much has already been achieved, highlights include:
- Sustainable Development Education staff development presentations / workshops have been made to 28 of Scotland’s colleges - 34 visits in all. The sessions are aimed at Senior Management, Curriculum Teams and academic staff and can be tailored to institutional needs. The workshops normally take about an hour and comprise: a definition and clarification of what exactly Sustainable Development Education is; a description of the work of the SDE Project; the good work already taking place in your own college and the wider college sector, and; some simple suggestions as to how you can implement Scottish Government’s policy – Learning for Change - in relation to SDE and support the UN decade for Education for Sustainable Development. If you would like to commission a free development visit tailored to your own institutional needs please do not hesitate to get in touch with the project consultant.
- The Sustainable Development Education Survey - completed, published and circulated to college Principals with an invitation to host free SDE development visits in their own colleges from the project consultant, view the
 Sustainable Development Education Survey Report (January 2009) (357.54 kB).
- A CPD Unit - Teaching in Further Education: Sustainable Development Education has been developed and validated - F4TK 36 - is now available on the SQA Website. We anticipate that the Further Education Professional Development Forum will promote this and that a number of centres will be offering the unit in the near future.
- A number of articles relating to the Sustainable Development Education Project have been published in Broadcast and elsewhere.
- Increasing engagement / collaboration with others active in SDE particularly a renewed dialogue with EAUC Scotland, also: Sustainable Development Education Network - setting revised objectives for the second half of the UNDESD; HE Academy exploring areas of common interest; World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics (WFCP) Sustainable Development Affinity Group - making the links globally.
- The collaborative work, with the Learning and Skills Council to develop sector (curriculum) guidance on embedding SDE into the taught curriculum is now complete and published.
- The Project supported HMIe in the preparation of their SDE Aspect Report. An aspect report by HM Inspectors on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council: Sustainability and Scotland’s Colleges - 30 October 2009.
- Collaborative work with EAUC - Promoting Poverty Aware Procurement on Campus - Poverty Aware Procurement of Beauty Products - is now complete and published - my thanks to members of the Hair and Beauty Subject Network for their help and advice in preparation of the report.
- View SDE Project website for regular updates.
- Additional learning materials have been posted on the SDE Learning Resources website.
- A collection of stories/blogs and other learning resources is available on the project consultant's learning resources website. Please feel free to use these as you see fit.
- The project consultant has made publicly available work on a long-term campus sustainability project in the form of an environmental management system.
What next?
It is becoming increasingly apparent that Sustainable Development Education is a key priority with the Scottish Government and the Scottish Funding Council and is now becoming established as an issue in the boardrooms of Scotland's colleges. The principles of Sustainable Development have been embedded in a Curriculum for Excellence and HMIe have been tasked with monitoring Colleges’ responses to sustainable development during the ongoing college review process. Our researches have shown that good practice in the teaching of sustainable development is widespread in the classroom and institution but this often goes unrecognised even by the practitioners themselves - they seem to assume "everyone does that".
The fact is that Sustainable Development Education is not difficult to understand or to deliver and many colleges are already providing provision across a raft of issues employing a range of methods. The SDE project will continue to nurture and support this growing area: through a programme of development visits to management and curriculum teams; provision of CPD; by keeping the sector informed as to developments in the field for example the national conference on SDE which was held in Edinburgh in November 2009, and; through the creation of a practical resource bank for use on the campus, and in the classroom and lecture theatre.
John Salter
Tel: 01786 892000
E-mail John Salter
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